[...] Bandwagon Undo and Redo [...]

[...] Bandwagon Undo and Redo [...]

[...] though it may expand to cover other data types in the future. As a beta tester, I’ve been underwhelmed, but perhaps they’ll get it together before their next relaunch. Bandwagon uses [...]

A similar user asked the same question. My response: http://blog.ridethebandwagon.com/2007/03/01/why-monthly-charges-instead-of-a-one-time-fee/#comments

Terence: I appreciate your response. It’s good to hear that you’ll support other data types in the future. As far as pricing goes, for the basic version of Bandwagon, it’s not clear to me why the metadata has to be stored on your servers and not on S3. But I can see how interaction with your servers could be required for something like syncing.

Joe, thanks for your thoughts. We agree that our undo and redo is not the best way to launch a new product. We apologize and admit our mistake.

RE: iTunes backup, this is just our initial data type. We will be including other data types over time (photos, documents, excel, etc.).

Our backup and restore technology are unique in this space. Most files, like document.doc, do not contain extraneous metadata (which makes it easy to backup and restore) but iTunes has special metadata (artist, rating, play count, booklets, playlists, etc.) that most music geeks would want to preserve. Most backup providers will not preserve this metadata changes leaving you to clean up your iTunes items. Photos is also chockfull of metadata. We want to apply this ease of use to all data types.

In addition, when restoring, bandwagon TELLS you what is missing in one click. Most restore procedures involves folder and file selections and dragging even if those folders and files do not need restoring.

Bottom line: we are lazy when it comes to backup. Bandwagon wants to make this process so effortless as to leave no excuse not to backup. We do not want to be another me-too manual backup + restore provider (ala BackJack).

RE: pricing…I have written an explantion on our blog. http://blog.ridethebandwagon.com/2007/03/01/why-monthly-charges-instead-of-a-one-time-fee/

[...] Update (2/28/2007): Well, forget about all that. The service went offline after just a couple of days and will apparently reappear in another form in April. Read about the details in Bandwagon Undo and Redo. [...]